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" ...The myriad
of issues and glitches bring the whole experience down to a ho-hum affair
at best. "

&nbsp Title: Delta Force Xtreme 2 by Novalogic

&nbsp Format: PC Sandbox Shooter

&nbsp Reviewing Monkey: Our Ape Masters

&nbsp The Hype: The original Delta Force, and
its first couple of sequels, were pretty damned groundbreaking for their day.
Their HUGE sandbox environments, vehicles, and modern weapons were all innovative
when the games launched. But it's been four years since the last Delta Force
title hit our desks, and almost twice that long since the franchise was a powerhouse
of the online gaming world. So can this latest sequel pass muster and live up
to it's best of the best namesake? You'll have to read on to find out.

&nbsp What This Monkey Thought...

I know you monkeys
don't really care about the intricacies of this side of the business, but reviewing
budget titles is hard. Way harder than doing a write up for the latest high-end
launch title, no matter how good or bad that game may be. The reason, simply
enough, is that you constantly have to measure the quality of the title with
the discount that it's being sold at. It would be unreasonable to judge a $30
game, which Delta Force Xtreme 2 (DFX2) is, against a $50 power title from a
major developer.
But how much leeway
does that 20 bucks buy you? Does it justify massively inferior graphics? I think
so, and that's good--because DFX2 has them. Does it justify a downright tiny
singleplayer experience and sparsely populated online servers? That ones tougher.
Maybe. And both of those are problems, because DFX2 has those, too.
But what about some
seriously sloppy gameplay elements, massive bugs, and an interface that could've
been designed by the instructor in my high school programming class? No. No,
all of that is still absolutely unacceptable. Which is too bad, because as you
unquestionably guessed, DFX2 has all of those, as well.
The problems, really,
all stem from the short singleplayer. If the singleplayer experience was better--if
it was longer, richer, and more engaging, you wouldn't notice how horribly awkward
the multiplayer parts are.
You also wouldn't
notice what a game-breaker the game's antiquated graphics are--which are so
lacking in smoothness and textures that enemies stand out like trees in a desert
when attacked at some of DFX2's impressive multi-kilometer rendering distances
and turn every online battle into nothing but a snipe fest.
Nor would you realize
how unbalanced and underdeveloped the game's weapon mechanics are, which make
everything equally lethal--giving pinpoint accuracy to sniper rifles, assault
rifles, and machine guns alike (which leads to some amazing 2 kilometer submachine
gun shots).
But, most importantly,
you wouldn't realize how down-right shitty the game's online verification system
is, which forces you to log in to the internet regardless of how you want to
play and host everything you do, including LAN, through their servers. And if
you didn't notice that, you probably wouldn't notice how horribly broken all
of those systems are, and how they'll frustrate you damned near every time you
try and use them...making you load and reload the game to get a viable connection,
struggle to find low-lag servers, and--at least for us--make you give up on
trying to get LAN play to work entirely.
And if none of that
was the case, you'd be free to focus on the game's good points. Like the amazing
looking iron sights, which are unquestionably the most realistic I've ever seen
in a game. Or the nice assortment of vehicles. Or the fact that, when you can
actually find a server filled with fifty people and connect successfully, the
multiplayer can be quite a bit of fun.
But, instead, the
myriad of issues and glitches bring the whole experience down to a ho-hum affair
at best. One that's not terribly overpriced at 30 bucks, but one that would
be a helluva lot more appealing at 20.